I'm a reporter who has worked in business journalism for the past few years. In August of 2009 I joined Forbes to cover the residential housing market, luxury real estate and all things fancy-house related. I also compare economic statistics across cities for our data-driven rankings, and from time to time I write about other things. Like all New York City natives, I have a special gene for obsessing about square footage, home interiors and real estate market conditions. Follow me on twitter: @ForbesFrancesca.

10/12/2010 @ 11:32AM71,632 views

The Country's Most Dangerous Cities

Caveats aside, the top ten cities on our “most dangerous” list have, at the very least, some problems to sort out. We used FBI data on the number of violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2009, and Department of Transportation data on the number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2008 (the most recent available). We ranked all cities with a population above 250,000 for which we had complete data. A lack of data prevented us from including Chicago, Las Vegas and Virginia Beach, Va. in the rankings.

Memphis, Tenn., where gang crime has ramped up in recent years, takes the dubious honor of first place. The city also has one of the worst driving fatality records of any city we ranked, with fifteen traffic fatalities for every 100,000 people in 2008. Missouri is a comparatively dangerous state – two of its cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, come in at numbers two and three, respectively. This list will also do little to dispel the stereotypes of fourth-ranked Detroit, Mi. as an altogether scary place.

While it’s easy to fixate on fear, the country is getting safer on several counts – crime continues to drop nationally, and more and more states each year are putting laws on the books to combat distracted driving, which will make the roads a slightly less scary place. But to satisfy your morbid curiosity, the ten most dangerous cities are below.

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i live two blocks from kansas city, kansas, and three blocks from kcmo. i’m confused as to whether these statistics are for the city, proper, or for the city and surrounding communities. if only the city proper is considered, then yes, the statistics might be correct. however, if you’re taking into account the other half of kansas city, kansas (kansas city is split down the middle by a state line), i bet we wouldn’t be on your list. And you’re not considering the suburbs at all, where many, many of kansas city’s residents live, but are still less than 15 miles from the center of the city. as the other comment says, you gave a million reasons this list shouldn’t have been compiled.

I am very offended that you think Tulsa, ok belongs on this list! Its sad, Honestly I grew up in Tulsa and I have never had any problems. I have also lived in Houston which has a higher crime rate then Tulsa, Also I lived in NY and they as well had a higher crime rate! Tulsans are very peaceful people!

I’d also like to know how/if this list differentiates from KCK and KCMO. KCMO has a much higher crime rate, but the wording in this article is confusing. It refers to towns of 250K or more. KCMO has approx 475K (for the city proper), but over 2 million for greater KC (KS and MO). Could you please clarify if this list is for greater KC or simply KCMO? Thanks…

@kckim, these rankings looked at Kansas City, Mo. alone. @chanelde87, the rankings shouldn’t be seen as a criticism of Tulsa. Neighborhoods vary widely within cities and individual experiences often don’t match the numbers.

Francesca … couldn’t find any other way to reach you. I am with the Quincy Herald-Whig, the newspaper in Quincy, Ill., and wanted to get some information from you about the best small cities to raise a family story. Could you call me at 217-221-3376 or e-mail me at dadam@whig.com?

I think the list is invalid based on the fact that Chicago and Las Vegas were not even considered. There are also several more cities that do not report crime data to the FBI’s UCR system because they fail to meet the standard of reporting.

I understand that as a magazine Forbes has to have an angle that’s unique in order to make money. But it seems that this is done at the expense of the people who live and work (most quite happily) in the cities on our list above. Some of the cities, like Memphis and Tulsa, are continuously placed on lists that are negative and damaging. Potentially stifling efforts to grow and recover economically.

It would be good for Forbes to maybe have a list of top ten cities that could potentially bounce back from the recession…or top ten cities making an effort to bounce back.

The point is, these lists aren’t doing anything positive for anyone except to help Forbes sell magazine subscriptions.

@havf8th, @accetiquette, thanks for your input. All methodologies have drawbacks, and we feel it’s important to be completely transparent about how we arrived at our conclusions so readers can be informed when deciding what to make of them. For a couple of cities, as mentioned, there simply wasn’t data. @jimharvey3591, it’s just Memphis proper, not the MSA. @pbatl, thanks for the heads-up – that was inserted erroneously. Atlanta isn’t in the top ten.

Francesca– I don’t know about some of the other cities, but just to compare two that are fairly similar in some ways (SMSA by population, same state, etc.) Nashville is a Metro area and Memphis is a city… for those that care, probably a more representative measurement would be the counties (Davidson and Shelby respectively). Memphis ranks high on a lot of these lists from both 1) the purely ‘city’ component of the statistics and 2) the way Memphis has chosen to report crime statistics (“The Memphis Police Department’s use of the FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System, which is a more detailed method of reporting crimes than that used in many other major cities, has been cited as a reason for Memphis’s frequent appearance on lists of most dangerous U.S. cities.” — Conley, Christopher (2009-06-29). “Memphis a victim of crime reports”. Commercial Appeal. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/29/memphis-victim-of-crime-reports/) I’d be interested in comparisons that get past the idiosyncrasies and address the reality of the cities… without that the headlines just come across and are “sensational” but can have a lingering effect where maybe it’s not deserved.